Anne Reher Livio, 89; L.A. Political, Social Activist Served on City’s Arts Commission

Anne Reher Livio, a Los Angeles political and social activist who served on the city’s Municipal Arts Commission in the 1970s, has died. She was 89.

Livio died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Westwood, her family said.

In the late 1940s, she was a firm supporter of the United Nations. She eventually became president of the United Nations Assn. of Beverly Hills and vice president of the U.N. Assn. of Los Angeles.

As a Catholic social activist in the 1950s and ‘60s, she was influenced in part by Father John Coffield, the activist priest who died earlier this month. Livio was a founder of local chapters of the Christines, a Catholic organization devoted to civil rights and tolerance; the Commonweal Club, a support group for the Catholic magazine Commonweal; and the Catholic Peace Assn. She was also on the board of directors of a local chapter of the Catholic Human Relations Council.

Then married to Sven Reher, a professional violist, Livio turned their home near UCLA into a hub of activism. It was not uncommon for upward of 100 people to gather at the house to hear such speakers as Catholic theologian Hans Kung, Jesuit activist Daniel Berrigan, actor Sidney Poitier and Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.).

“They would have big debates about social issues and Catholic positions on social issues,” recalled Livio’s son, David Reher. During the McCarthy era in the 1950s, he said, “Mom was not well looked on in some sectors of the church. They used to call her a pinko in the parish, which, of course, she wasn’t.”

Reher remembered about 200 people spilling out of their living room and onto the patio and front lawn for a 1964 concert by jazz pianist George Shearing that raised money to fight Proposition 14, which sought to repeal the Rumford Fair Housing Act.

“She was a great believer in these causes,” Reher said of his mother. “But from a son’s point of view, she was just a tremendously active woman in everything.”

Born in Denver, Livio received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1937 from Loretto Heights College there. The same year, she began teaching music and literature at Marymount High School in Westwood. She later received a bachelor’s degree in music at UCLA and a master’s in music at Mount St. Mary’s College.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, she worked as a public speaker, doing book reviews and giving satirical talks such as “Emily Post Around the World” at women’s club luncheons -- first on her own, then as part of public relations for Mobil Oil and Union Bank.

At the same time, she and Sven developed a successful husband-wife musical routine dedicated to subjects such as “Music in Paris” and “Music in Vienna,” which they dubbed “recitalogues.” With her on piano and him on the viola, they would sing and tell anecdotes about the composers and the music of various eras.

Appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to the Municipal Arts Commission in 1974, Livio served until 1980.

In addition to David, she is survived by her second husband, Joseph Livio; three other children, Kathleen Strafaci, Vincent Reher and Mary Reher; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

A funeral will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Holy Cross Cemetery, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., Culver City.